1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicular drive apparatus provided with an electric motor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 6-328950 (JP-A-6-328950) describes a vehicular drive apparatus which is provided with a generator and a motor arranged on the same axis as an output shaft of an internal combustion engine, and in which a clutch and an output gear of an automatic transmission are arranged between the generator and the motor. In addition, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-191761 (JP-A-2003-191761) and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-127411 (JP-A-2005-127411) also describe prior art related to the invention.
With the drive apparatus described in JP-A-6-328950, a support wall that supports the motor is separate from a support wall on which the clutch of the automatic transmission is arranged, which tends to increase the dimensions of the drive apparatus in the axial direction. Accordingly, the need arises to devise a way to suppress this increase in dimensions in the axial direction, such as arranging the constituent elements of the automatic transmission on the inner periphery of the rotor of the motor, for example, which may make the structure complicated.